The Privacy Act of 1974 requires that when we ask you for information we tell you our legal right to ask for the information, why we are asking you for it, and how it will be used. We must also tell you what could happen if we do not receive it and whether your response is voluntary, required to obtain a benefit, or mandatory. Our legal right to ask for the information is section 408 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1108, which authorizes the Department to grant conditional exemptions from the prohibited transaction provisions of ERISA. The exemption that this relates to provides relief to responsible plan fiduciaries whose service provider failed to disclose to them certain required fee information. One of the conditions of the exemption requires that notice be provided to the Department and outlines the information to be included in the notice. We are asking you for information because the Fee Disclosure Failure Notice is one way you can provide this notice to the Department. If you do not provide the notice to the Department, you will not have met one of the conditions of the exemption and will not get the relief from the prohibited transaction. We do not sell the information we collect. The information that you provide will be used by the Department's Office of Enforcement to carry out the Department's responsibilities under ERISA and may be shared with other government agencies for their compliance purposes.
We use contractors to perform various website and database functions. When we do, we make sure that the agreement language with the contractor ensures the security, confidentiality and integrity of any personal information.
We may disclose to you and others the information you give us if authorized or required by Federal law, such as the Privacy Act. Also, if you provide false or fraudulent information, you may be subject to criminal prosecution. See section 1027, Title 18, U.S. Code (False statements and concealment of facts in relation to documents required by ERISA) and section 1001, Title 18, U.S. Code (Fraud and False Statements-Statements or entries generally). Other penalties may also apply.